Blade of Purpose
by deadpoolhulk
Summary: Born and raised to be a weapon of the Dark Side, Laura Kinney has come out the other side, damaged but devoted to serving the Republic and the Light side of the force. But the Dark side never ceases to whisper to her. The guilt she carries has made her refuse a place amongst the Jedi. The Galaxy burns in the war of Apocalypse. Somewhere within this, Laura hopes to find her purpose.


Apocalypse.

Once, you could go to any planet in any system in the galaxy and odds were you'd find a whole host of meanings for that word to the society and people you'd met. Different legends, myths or faiths from their past on the end times. Or theories, fears and concerns about what might destroy their world in the future. Once you could spend a lifetime documenting all there was to know about what different Sentient beings thought when they heard the word Apocalypse.

Once.

Now, from the core-worlds to the outer-rim, it meant only one thing. That one way or another the war had reached your doors. And when that happened, hell followed with it.

"APOCALYPSE! APOCALYPSE! FOR THE GLORY OF THE STRONG!"

The chant, staggered and confused at first, had found weight and built amongst the nearly fifty angry men and women of nearly half a dozen different species that were marching down the main street. All of them were armed, many with cheep or rusted looking blaster pistols, but most were making due with vibro-blades, pipes, hand tools, or anything else that looked heavy and wicked enough to kill if swung with enough hate behind it.

Laura could hear them on the wind. three floors up and with the windows made of reinforced plast-steel, she could still hear them roar. That was a bad sign.

"I do not believe they will be willing to talk." She spoke calmly, brushing strands of black hair behind her ear. There was some disbelieving muttering and scoffing from the others in the room which she ignored.

Regardless. This wasn't good. Laura had set out from headquarters with only six Republic Troopers to respond to one of their recon groups having sent a Mayday signal asking for immediate reinforcements. They'd stuck to the streets that had been thought to be Republic held territory, and not meant to be here for long.

Under no circumstances had they been planning or prepared for this kind of enemy option. Even when they had found what was left of the recon group.

This place had been an office building of some kind, probably working on the paperwork side of the mining industry that was this area of space's main life-blood and export. Heavy cabinets, work desks, and terminals had been turned over and prepared as barricades with commendable skill to offer the best firing zones and personal protection. Laura would have complimented them on their work if they had been under her command.

Even though it had all done nothing to help.

The three men and two women Laura had been asked to find and support back to base were all dead. And none of them had died well.

The young woman knelt next to one of the bodies, sprawled on his back behind one of the overturned desks. His blaster was still clenched in his right hand, but his right hand was laying a distance from the rest of him, the burning flesh of his wrist still smoking along with the perfectly round hole burned through his heart.

"Lightsaber." Laura confirmed, even if it had been clear to everyone what had done this, and who that implied. "I want all entrances covered now. They might still be close." she could sense the effect her words had had on the room. Calm replaced with unease, the confidence of experienced soldiers fading in the face of a dangerous threat they'd never had to deal with before. Laura could hardly blame them, she was feeling her unease grow hand in hand with the noise of the mob outside.

One of the Troopers, Marcus, had taken his position as ordered, his blaster level and ready at the doorway they'd entered from. "I thought Jedi and Sith could sense each other?" He spoke up, his hesitant tone seeking reassurance. "like that 'disturbance in the force' stuff right?"

Laura frowned. "I am no Jedi." There was a smattering of groans from the troopers around her, this was at least the dozenth time she'd insisted on that, she ignored the unspoken complaints and pressed on. "For the most part yes, but some can hide their presence. We should not take the risk." Laura had trained too hard to rely on her force powers alone, there was always going to be people better then her and she had to be ready for them.

Marcus considered the information. "So we could have a Sith lord drop down on us at any point with no warning? Great. Wonderful." The stress radiating from the room increased another notch or two and Laura didn't have much to offer in way of optimistic news.

"Unlikely." Laura stepped away from the body and approached the window. "I expect they are somewhere in that, directing them."

The squads communications expert, a Mon Calamari Laura had not learned the name of yet, gasped as he put the same pieces together that Laura had. "it's a trap! They let Re-con Delta get off the emergency signal, then sat back waiting for us to walk right in as easy pickings!"

There was a smattering of curses and swear words as that sank in.

"Taking out two squads for the price of one huh?" Marcus gritted his teeth. "bastards are getting smart. "Get on the hailer, update command of the enemies new tactics. no one else will be taken unawares like this if nothing else." The Mon Calamari nodded and got to work.

Laura hadn't taken her eyes off the Mob as they reached the building, instead of storming in to try and tear her and her men apart like Laura had expected, they surrounded the Transport.

Like carrion insects swarming a dead animal to strip it to the bone, they pressed around it. Hammers drills and knives scrambled for a purchase, the most vulnerable points were found in shockingly short order, prying open vents, ports or the weak points of the front window.

Laura watched with a forced lack of passion as the mob below, screaming and singing praises to the Dark Lord of the Sith at the top of their lungs all the while, stuffed the vehicle with home made explosives. "here they come." was her only comment, and it occurred to her maybe she should have warned the others what was happening when they all flinched and broke formation to turn to the window as the entire building shook with the force of the explosion.

"W-was that-" Began Kenny, the youngest trooper in the room, even if he had a couple years on Laura.

"Our transport yes." Laura said bluntly. "we are currently trapped. They are in the building and coming up to find us."

Kenny went very pale and Laura felt a shard of remorse for dragging them all here to most likely die along with her. "then... what do we do now?"

Laura shrugged off her brown overcoat and carefully draped it over a nearby chair. The only chair not broken or overturned. "Get to the roof. Call in evacuation via air but tell them with this many unknown enemies that we have no way of being sure they have safe approach. Barricade yourselves as well as you can." Laura took a deep breath and started towards the door. "If it arrives, contact me. If I do not respond within ten seconds of your message then leave."

Marcus didn't like that answer one bit, he stood and grabbed her shoulder, making Laura stop her pace for just a moment. "what are you thinking? We aren't abandoning anyone here!"

For the first time since she'd met these men this morning, Laura smiled. It was quite unnecessary. In fact she thought it foolish. But she appreciated the kindness in those words. "Thank you. But do not worry, I will do my best to make it to you in good order."

She reached up and took his hand, gently lifting it off her shoulder and pushing it back towards his gun. "command gave me authority over you and your men did they not?" Laura asked, waiting until Marcus gave her a very unhappy nod. "then keep your men alive. That is an order." 

Laura did not give him a chance to reply as she reached the doorway, only looking back when Kenny called out to her: "what are you going to do?!"

Moral and leadership were not something Laura had any expertise with, but even she knew the Troopers she was leaving behind needed to hear something to make them believe this wasn't hopeless.

The Lightsaber at her waist seemed to unhook from her belt of its own accord and flew upwards into her open palm, nestling itself there as perfectly as only a weapon tailor made for its owner could do.

Her thumb found the power switch and with an unmistakable sound of power, a colourless pure white blade emerged. "I am going to hold off these attackers until their Sith leader has no choice but to challenge me. Then I will end him. Now go."

With the promise made, Laura headed for the stairs without looking to see if her empty bravado had done anything to help. As her feet reached the first step, she reached out in the force and was able to feel a sense of relief amongst those she left behind, as Marcus set about organising the strategic withdrawal upwards. Now all she had to do was keep to her word, as if it was that simple.

As she descended into the darkness of the stairwell alone, Laura emptied her mind as best she could and reflected on what had brought her to this point.

Her name was Laura Kinney. She was 21 standard years old and had been on this rock for a month and a half now. Designated "Orckan-Alpha" due to it being the only one of the Orckan asteroids that had a population high enough to be called a city. All the mining, refinement, packaging and exporting of the precious and valuable materials contained in the Asteroid belt passed through and was processed here before being sent out to the wider Republic.

There was no one questioning why the Sith had gone to the lengths they had to begin a violent uprising amongst the population. Supply of resources vital to the war effort had been almost cut to a tenth of what they had been eight months ago. Minor strikes had become protests, which had turned more and more violent. Violence had slowly turned from broken windows and episodic looting, to Republic officials and their families being beaten in the street. At that point the Republic had been left with no choice but to come down hard on what had been thought to be the leaders of such viciousness.

Not only had that failed to work, but it had seemed to be the lit match someone had been waiting for. Things turned into terrorism and gorilla warfare seemingly overnight. If the insurrectionists had been armed with blasters to begin with, they'd made sure to hide that fact until they had the pretence of "Republic oppression" to start shooting at anyone and anything they could claim was part of the Republic.

Naturally, reinforcements in security personnel and troops had been sent to try and restore some sense of order, but lines of troops can not be marched against a foe that wore no uniform and seemed no different then a civilian until they struck. Inevitably, what had been hoped could be settled in a single decisive battle, had become months upon months of bloody drawn out fights. Ambushes, raids, small vicious riots and localised attacks.

Two months ago, dismembered bodies and witnesses describing a man with a crimson blade were enough to escalate the priority level of the conflict even further. A sith. Operating not just openly, but blatantly in Republic space. It was the kind of danger that could not be ignored even if it was so obvious they were being baited.

The Jedi council had asked Laura to hunt the Sith down and do all she could to end the violence here, and she had accepted.

Two months later and she had accomplished neither of those things.

Two months ago, she had stepped onto the ugly grey surface of this massive asteroid and been welcomed with a mix of anticipation and poorly hidden awe. As well as the occasional look of unease, but Laura had become well versed in pretending not to see such things.

The commanders of the operation here had been ecstatic. A portly man, two decades past his prime but no less determined to serve, had shaken her entire arm, his large fists dwarfing hers as he pumped it up and down. The way he'd spoken, talking of wide spread opportunities she was opening up and limitless situations where she could help, Laura had quickly recognised what she was dealing with.

Many people had bought into the legends and myths surrounding the force a bit too well, and were convinced a single Jedi (not that she was a Jedi of course) could single handedly win a war. The problem was, they had indeed done so on far too many occasions for her to convince him it wasn't that simple and she couldn't solve all his problems in a day.

War, and its grim realities, soon vindicated her however.

With no central base, no leadership to be found, no main resources or convoys to hit, Laura had very quickly become just another soldier on the ever shifting front line of the urban warfare. One of the more valuable ones to be sure, but still. When things flared up she'd head out along with the Troopers and assist in ending the violence as quickly as possible.

Not once, no matter how long she had made herself a visible target, had the Sith appeared to face her. More maddening still, was the fact that that didn't mean he wasn't making himself known.

By her count, 31 people were confirmed to have been killed by the Sith Lord. No. wait. 36. Laura had forgotten to add these newest victims. She paused mid step and weighed her thoughts carefully. It was far far to easy to let anger rise in her. It felt righteous, this indignation boiling over in her mind, it felt justified.

It felt right.

Laura closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. The rise and fall of her lungs. The rhythm of her heart. The hum of her blade.

Her anger floundered inside her, flailing as it tried to find purchase within her, to sink its hooks in her soul and transform into hate.

_He has killed so many innocents. _The thought came to her and she couldn't deny the truth of it. _He has to be stopped, no matter the cost._

"No." Laura hissed at herself through gritted teeth. Not at any cost. He was NOT a target and she was not someone to ignore things like collateral damage. Not any more.

She tightened her grip on her lightsaber, the familiar smooth hilt offering her comfort and a grounded sense of things. The part of her that called for vengeance was quieted. For now.

"APOCALYPSE!"

Laura's eyes snapped open. It was faint. But it was here. The ground floor. The stairwell. They were coming. Laura took the rest of the flight at a near sprint, her feet skipping four steps at a time to reach the landing below her. It was dark, the power to the building had been cut minutes before the original distress signal had been sent. The only source of light was the shine of her blade and Laura cursed her own foolishness for leaving the glow rods she'd brought in her coat pocket.

The small patch of floor was as bare and grey as the walls and stairs. All it had to its name was the stairs leading up, a few feet of bare permacrete, then the stairs down. That and the door behind her leading to the rest of the second floor.

Laura tested the door handle and, finding it unlocked, quickly moved over to the stairs. A few quick slices of her blade cut a suitable sized portion of the hand-railing away from its frame and into her hands. Satisfied, she deactivated her lightsaber for the moment and reattached it to her belt.

The world plunged back into pure darkness. Somewhere in the black, voices one again screamed out "APOCALYPSE!" but now she could hear the frantic footsteps rushing up towards her, and the disorganised breaths and shouts of a crowd.

Laura would not call it fear. Never that. But an urgency took her. With one hand holding the metal steady, she held her other palm open and focused. It wasn't her that caused the railing to bend and grind its way around and through the handle so that it could not be turned or opened from either side. Laura knew better now, that what she felt was the living force, willingly doing what she asked of it.

She had been reassured countless times that it would become easier the more she trusted the Force to act as she asked. But understanding the concept wasn't the same thing as being able to so willingly let herself open up herself to it.

Even now, as the job was done and the metal settled into its new twisted shape, Laura could feel what was almost certainly the light. Like the faintest touch on her skin, something gentle and loving tried to embrace her. Laura tried to hold that feeling as long as she could, maybe this time it would stay. Maybe this ti- No!

The fear of being controlled, of being owned, rushed into her before she could stop it and the connection broke, or faded away. It was near impossible to know what to call whatever that had truly been. If it had ever been more then wishful thinking at all.

For now, she would have to be satisfied with the fact that no one would be taking her by surprise, nor flanking her through the rest of the building. And that would have to do. It was all she had time left for because they were here.

"THE STRONG SURVIVE! A NEW AGE RISES! APOCALYPSE! APOCALYPSE! APOCALYPSE!"

The words blurred together into a wave of angry noise that had never mattered anyway. The smell and noise of half a hundred or more unwashed and frantic bodies barrelling themselves towards her hit her a heartbeat later as they came. Laura didn't know if they were even aware of her presence in the dark like this, surely their own yelling would have drowned out what noise she'd made herself.

If she had been alone, she may have tried to blend into the crowd, in the darkness they would have had little chance to tell one stranger in this mass of bodies from any of their allies and let it carry her to a chance to escape.

Sounded nice. Sounded easy. Sounded like it would leave her men behind to die, so it was dismissed as soon as it occurred to her. Just once Laura would like to get to use the easy way out.

Moments before the rush and roar of rage hit her, Laura stepped forwards and ignited her lightsaber once more. The white light filled everything around it and in an instant she could at last see the figures before her.

The pure shock of her appearance had taken them completely by surprise and as the first rows scrambled and slid to a panicked halt, those behind them crushed themselves in the confusion, there were pained shouts and several swearing demands to know what was happening.

All of which cut down to silence as Laura raised her weapon high to be seen over the heads of those in front. "Surrender. Or retreat." her voice was cold and matter of fact. Laura knew that they wouldn't accept the offer, but for her own peace of mind she had to try at least once. "none of you will make it past me I promise."

There was a milling, uncertain energy building as the surprise wore off to be replaced by the realisation it was just one woman.

It started with a single hissed whisper. "Jedi!" the word was a lightning rod amongst the crowd, repeated again and again going from disbelieving to a building murderous spite.

Laura sighed out an exasperated "No I am not." and was promptly ignored.

"It's a filthy Jedi!" The one leading the way was an ugly bastard. A human standing at nearly 6 feet, every inch of his shaved head smeared in dirt and soot, he bared broken teeth in a hateful leer and pointed at her with an inert power drill long since ripped from its power cord. "KILL HER! We'll offer Apocalypse her head! Rip her apa-"

As he'd began his rant, the man had started towards her, holding the drill like a club he'd been a step and a half from Laura when she'd lunged forwards and plunged the tip of her lightsaber directly through his heart. His words cut off in a strangled gasp of pain. The drill fell from already numb fingers, clattering to the metal floor moments a second before its owner followed it.

For a second Laura dared hope that such a swift and brutal showing could possibly scare the rest away from following such a lead. Then the men who had been standing aside the corpse only seconds ago let out outraged bellows and charged her with hate in their eyes. The rest followed them in the wordless cry for vengeance and suddenly there was no longer time to think.

Everything became a series of instinctual movements, experience and reflexes being the only thing driving her from heartbeat to heartbeat. Her blade sliced, slashed and stabbed at openings she was barely conscious of. Though none of the things that could perhaps be called weapons had even the faintest hopes of standing up to a lightsaber, they would all be enough to kill her if they struck true. And worst still there seemed to be no end to them.

A hammer came down towards her shoulder, her blade slid upwards and took it and the offending wrist away.

An agonised howl in the dark might have belonged to that person, or to whoever was struck by the blaster bolt that Laura had barely had time to be able to reflect before it hit her shoulder.

Whoever in the mob it was that had a blaster, they did not fire again for several more seconds, perhaps the woman with a knife in each hand that screamed at Laura in a language she didn't understand blocked the shot. But then Laura took a step back to avoid the wild knife swings and took the woman through the neck, and no shots came then either.

This was the first seconds of the attack, with others trying to push through to attack along side it that Laura did not register. Fingers scratched at her leg, torn fingernails drawing blood before being stomped on by some other lunatic in this insanity. If the stairwell had been wider, she would have been overwhelmed and butchered in moments, but here and now the fact was, Laura was having her life saved less by her own skill or weapon, and far more by the foes themselves pushing and shoving each other in desperation to be the one to try next.

And it did not stop.

Laura very quickly lost all hope of knowing how many people she'd killed, how many were left, or even what was really happing. She attacked and was attacked, swung and blocked, ducked and kicked. Again and again her lightsaber claimed lives or caused disfiguring wounds, desperate to hope that she'd see some thinning in the people before her to no avail.

Even if those in front had their nerve break, they too had nowhere to go, the way back full of their blood lusting companions surging forwards to the bitter end. Everyone here was trapped in a kill or be killed fight no matter if they wanted it or not.

All the while, step by step, she gave ground. It was inevitable. There was simply too much trying to end her life to do otherwise. Her lightsaber was cutting through a vibro-blade to the left, when again spastic blaster shots were fired off somewhere to the right. Laura had to frantically throw herself backwards to avoid them and her attackers followed her like blood crazed pack animals sensing weakness even as pockets of the wall exploded outwards from the impact of the shots, showering Laura and those around her with shrapnel, grit and dust that was just one more painful distraction she had no time for.

By now Laura was half way up the stairs she'd originally came from, her attackers paying for every single step with blood and bodies. It was harder now, for those trying to reach her, to climb these steps, slick as they were with blood and the occasional body part, and Laura took every tiny advantage she could.

For all she had managed to hold this off so far, it had not been without cost. Something heavy had been lobbed at her, and whatever it was had cracked off the top of her head, leaving her long hair matted to her head and neck as blood soaked through mingling with sweat. There was more then a dozen bruises already forming on her arms and shoulders as she'd been knocked back against the wall or railings as she tried to move either left or right only for the blunt reminder she was penned in to be brought back into focus.

There was blood running down her left leg in worrying amounts. Laura had no idea when that wound had happened or how. She simply tried to lean more on her right leg as soon as the pain had started to become distracting.

A scrawny man swinging a length of chain like a whip managed only to hit the person behind him, and for his trouble was punched in the back of his head with enough force to start a mini brawl amongst them, those not involved seeming to have their blood raised enough to simply swing at whoever was swinging first. Those with their wits about them enough to remember Laura was the real enemy were accomplishing little better, simply trying to shove them aside.

Laura gasped down breath, every second these fools were busy with each other was a precious resource to try and recover as much of her strength as she could. Her lungs burned with exhaustion, her hands trembled around the hilt of her lightsaber, her heart beat fast enough she feared it would tear itself apart.

She was going to die here.

The thought didn't scare her. It was simply a statement of fact. She had agreed to spend the rest of her life fighting the Sith Empire, and in war people died. Those who were convinced it could never be them were usually the first to die.

So no, Laura was not scared of dying here. What she did feel was a mild offence that it was going to be at the hands of utterly untrained lunatics and a hodgepodge of blunt instruments. She had failed her mission completely. She wasn't going to hold out long enough for rescue to arrive for her men. She hadn't even SEEN the Sith Lord let alone had the chance to end his bloody rampage.

There was a high-pitched scream. The fool with the chain had finally been seized by those around him. He'd kicked and screamed and thrashed against their grips, his eyes bulging with fear as they'd dragged him to the railing and, with no fan-fair, hurled him over it. He screamed on the way down and vanished into the blackness.

The matter seemingly solved, eyes moved back to Laura and the fools murderers started once more towards her.

Laura took one last calming breath, and tried to lie to herself that she was alright with this.

A little voice in the worst part of her soul kept back to whisper to her with insidious helpfulness.

It pointed out that her attackers stood upon metal flooring. It reminded her that electricity could channel through such substances and enough of a shock delivered forwards could not only kill all her attackers, but save her life.

_They stand upon metal flooring._

"shut up." Laura hissed to no one. Damn it not now, she thought, let me die with some mental peace at least.

_Lightning could not only kill them all, but save your life._

"No." The worst part was how it always sounded so reasonable, like the tone of a concerned friend.

_You're a skilled force user, someone who trained your entire life to use both it and a lightsaber. You are far too useful to the Republic that anyone would consider these cretins a worthy trade for you. If they kill you here, the Sith are going to have an easier time taking this galaxy for they have one less foe to stand against them._

The voice was correct. Everything it said was something she couldn't argue with or prove wrong. But Laura knew what that thought was, and what it was tempting her to do.

Never again.

Laura let out a snarl she hadn't meant to vocalise. No. It wasn't worth it, nothing was ever worth giving in to that side of the force.

If she had to die here, being torn apart by a merciless mob, to remain herself?

Then she would die Laura Kinney, not-

"X-23?"

The shock of that name, called out from behind her, froze Laura to the spot, a lifetime she was so desperate to put behind her focused into the verbal bullet that was such a small thing. It was pain and grief and guilt and a thousand other terrible emotions washing over her in a moment.

It took her off guard so badly that she barely registered that the crowd who had only moments before been yelling and rushing for her head, had all halted in their tracks, every single one of them that her blades light reached were staring up, not at her, but over her shoulder... their faces bathed in white light showing shock, and surprise, and... glee... Excitement... anticipation.

Those emotions only grew when a crackling hiss that settled into a bass hum filled the air.

And a crimson red light bloomed.


End file.
